


And the Guardian's Intuition

by kingdomkeeperofthelibrary



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Eve needs a talk with Charlene, F/M, Guardian bonding, Hurt/Comfort, I love my Guardians, Please come home Flynn, Spoilers through Season 4 Episode 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 08:27:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13267566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingdomkeeperofthelibrary/pseuds/kingdomkeeperofthelibrary
Summary: Eve is mad. She's mad, and hurt, and confused and worried, and she's doing everything she can to keep the Library in shape. And through it all, she can't help but be worried sick about Flynn, and wonder where he is. And with all of it combined together weighing on her, Charlene decides that her succeeding Guardian needs a visit for some reassurance.Basically a talk between Eve and Charlene about everything that's going on, cause Eve needs it. And I need it.





	And the Guardian's Intuition

**Author's Note:**

> THIS IS SO MUCH LONGER THAN I INTENDED I'M SO SORRY. These characters have a habit of speaking and acting for themselves and these two wouldn't stop apparently. With everything going on with Flynn, I couldn't help but think about what Charlene and Judson might be thinking, how Eve might be reacting to it, and with that came this idea for our Guardians to have a chat! It delved into a lot of introspective about a lot of things, but I'm really happy with the results so I hope you enjoy!

“And I’ll keep up with our old friends just to ask them how you are.  
I hope it’s nice where you are.”

                                                                             -Taylor Swift _Last Kiss_

* * *

 

            It had been a week. A week passed and she heard nothing. It wasn’t for lack of trying. She’d barely spent any time focusing on her Library work at all, spending all of her time trying to track him down. Her phone showed dozens of unanswered texts, and un-returned calls, and voice mails that she didn’t know if he’d heard or not. She’d tried every GPS tactic the Library had had, even rigged his ring up to the backdoor, much to Jenkins’ dismay, but she just couldn’t seem to make it work.

Now, after all this time, Eve was just about ready to give up. She didn’t want to give up, but she was tired. She was tired of trying when he clearly didn’t want to be found. After a long day, she sat now at the main conference table late that night, the steam from her cup of coffee hitting her face. With Flynn gone, she’d made it her business to start studying Library lore, and it wasn’t something she’d stay awake through without exorbitant amounts of caffeine.

She was studying a layline map now, and was, as per usual, getting her nowhere. Stone and Cassandra had been helping her during the afternoon, but they’d gone home a while ago, and now she was left alone with something she barely understood. They’d tried to explain it, but it was all so confusing, and with her mind in such a fog she could barely remember anything. She dropped the pen she was holding onto the table and her head fell into her hand with frustration.

Flynn would understand these maps. He’d be able to explain them to her and she’d understand in no time. He had a way of doing that, of making her understand something she couldn’t before, even if someone else had told her the same thing in the exact same way. She didn’t really know why: it was just their way, like their minds were connected. They understood each-other better than anyone else. And so of course he made the most sense to her.

As much as she knew she shouldn’t be, she couldn’t stop thinking about him. And she hated it, because he _left_ her. But, sitting alone in the dark now, she couldn’t stop thinking that, were he here now, he wouldn’t be explaining the stupid layline maps to her, because she wouldn’t be studying them. They’d be at home, probably asleep, maybe not, but either way she’d be cuddled underneath his arm, his warm breath hitting her neck. And if they were awake he’d be holding her hand too, tracing circles on the back of her palm with his thumb, as they watched a movie, or talked, or did nothing at all. And she’d be smiling, because her heart would know undoubtedly that she was right at home.

She wondered where he was now. She should’ve been mad, and she was, but still all she could do was wonder where he was, if he was safe. She didn’t even know what had happened. She didn’t know what he was thinking, where his head was, what state he was in when he left. She didn’t know if he had a warm place to stay, or food, or if he was throwing himself into some ridiculous situation, or throwing himself so into his books that he forgot to take care of himself. That was the worst part of all of this: not knowing anything. She just wanted to know he was safe.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out his tethering ring. It had been sitting there like a weight constantly since the day he left. She couldn’t bring herself to put it down, not even when she slept. Now she flipped it over in her fingers and, despite how hard she tried to fight them, tears welled up in her eyes. She just missed him; she missed him so much.

“Little strange for you to be burning the midnight oil Guardian. You seem more like your counterpart.”

Eve jumped as a voice sounded from behind her. She hyperventilated as her eyes searched for the source, and when they did her heart stopped.

“Charlene?!” she exclaimed.

Eve got up and rushed over to the mirror, where the old Guardian was now appearing. She looked at Eve directly, and her eyes were filled with both pain and understanding. Eve put her hands on the edges of the mirror, not able to believe what she was seeing. Charlene flashed her a sympathetic smile, and clutched the pendant that still hung around her neck.

“How is this…” Eve stammered. “I thought you were….”

“I can still come through and visit once in a while,” Charlene explained. “If I’m needed. I came through to see Flynn once, did he tell you?”

“He did,” Eve said, nodding.

Charlene laughed, thinking she was being lighthearted, but to her dismay Eve’s face grew quickly sullen. She crossed her arms and looked at the floor. Charlene sighed, knowing for sure now that she wouldn’t be able to try for any conversation outside of the reason that she came.

 “He’s safe.” she said gently. “He’s alive, he’s safe.I might go so far as to say okay.”

Eve looked up again and Charlene could see that she was holding back tears. Her lips were pursed out and her eyes were wet, and she held her arms crossed tight against her chest. Charlene nearly cried herself. She’d never known Eve very well before she’d passed on, but to see her like this now left her as pained as if it were Flynn. She wished she could reach through the mirror and put a hand on her shoulder. Some things though, even in a Library full of magic, were not possible.

This was different from any Eve Charlene had encountered before, watching from the mirror for the past year. Both in her life and afterlife she’d seen Eve Baird to be tough as nails, and always on top of any mission they had to go into, the first to jump into investigatory mode. Now though, she was quiet, sullen, barely saying a word. Charlene worried greatly. It was far worse than she could have imagined.

“How…how do you know?” Eve finally managed to sputter. “Did he…did he speak to you before he left or…”

“We get a pretty wide view of things from this side of the mirror,” Charlene explained. “We’ve been keeping an eye on him.”

 “Do you know where he is?” Eve said weakly.

“I’m afraid things don’t work exactly that way. And with Flynn gone from the Library, the connection isn’t as strong as usual for us to see him.”

Eve looked away from her again and Charlene heard her sniff. She looked around the space near her, never settling on one spot for long. At one point though, Charlene captured a clear view of her face, and saw the tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Eve,” Charlene said gently.

“Can I see him?” Eve blurted out, cutting the old Guardian off.

Charlene stepped backwards with shock.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“The whole Guardian thing,” Eve sputtered, her voice growing more urgent. “If you can see him is there a way for me to?”

 “I….” Charlene stuttered, helpless. “I suppose….since you’re already committed to tether it might be possible, but….”

“Let’s do it then.”

“Colonel Baird there’s no precedence! It could be dangerous. There’s no telling what the implications could be for you!”

“I survived delivering Santa’s gift,” Eve said firmly. “I can survive this. Let’s go.”

Charlene did nothing, just looked at Eve scared. This was more like the Guardian she’d seen, but not in the way she wanted her to be now. This was the Eve Baird who was determined and powerfully stubborn and restless when it came to the people she loved, the Eve Baird who was frustratingly just like her. Charlene started to shake her head. It was too dangerous. She knew it was too dangerous.

“Charlene,” Eve stuttered, sensing her hesitation. “Please.”

Her voice cracked again and now, as their eyes met directly, all Charlene could see was a worried Guardian….and a worried fiancée. She thought back to her younger days, her active days, in Alexandria, with Judson always lost in his head and jumping from place to place and danger to danger with no warning. She held her breath worriedly for a moment, then exhaled with resignation. She couldn’t deny her this.

“Do you have your tethering ring?” she asked.

Eve looked down at her hands, where she was still holding Flynn’s ring from before. Her hand trembled as she returned it to her pocket, and pulled out her own, which she’d been keeping there since she got it. Holding back tears again, knowing she had to focus on the moment at hand, she held it out for Charlene.

“Put it on,” the elder Guardian said. “It will hopefully help.”

Not wasting any time, Eve slipped the ring quickly onto her left-hand ring finger, then turned to face Charlene again. She stood straight and tall, like she was ready to go into battle, like she’d always been trained to do no matter what the heavy emotion.

“Put your hands on top of mine against the glass.” Charlene said, holding out her hands to Eve. “And plant your feet firmly on the ground. This is going to feel bumpier than the back door.”

“I can handle it.” Eve said surely.

She walked close to the mirror and tried to erase any fear. She’d been trained to let go of fear. She’d forced herself to do it in every moment of her life. Still, it was hard with every situation she went into. It was hard to jump into something knowing she might not come out of it. She took a deep breath and thought of Flynn, and she pressed her hands against the glass. 

There was a flash of blinding light between the two Guardians, and Eve squeezed her eyes shut tight. She winced hard as a strong pulling sensation took her over. It was forceful, like she was being removed from her own body. Then, there was a popping sensation, and for a nanosecond everything was black. Then Eve, gasped, like she was waking up from a deep sleep, and it felt like she was standing on water.

She blinked her eyes and tried to get her bearings, and as the world around her came into focus, she found herself standing in what looked to be a hotel-suite that she didn’t recognize. She looked around, confused, not exactly remembering what had happened, and then she saw him. Sitting on a couch near the center of the room, he had his face buried in a book, and his face was scrunched up tight as if he were thinking hard about something.

“Flynn!” she called out, rushing forward.

“He can’t hear you,” a voice said from behind her.

She turned around and immediately all the memories came back. Charlene was standing in front of her, though not in a mirror, solid and reachable and full, as if she had never left the Library.

“Welcome to the mirror realm,” she said. “I’m impressed. Most mortals wouldn’t have walked out of that little bit.”

“What do you mean he can’t hear me?” Eve asked, walking towards her. “He’s right there! He’s sitting right there, _Flynn_!”

“This is a vision Colonel Baird. You’re seeing him as he is right now but you’re not really there.”

Eve looked back and forth between Charlene and the scene before them, shocked and confused, still not totally clear on what exactly she’d done. Everything seemed fuzzy here. All she knew was that Flynn was right there, and she should’ve been able to reach out to him and hold him in her arms and take him home.

“You asked to see him.” Charlene said. “Now you have. Now you know for yourself that he’s okay.”

Eve waited for a moment, simply standing there in front of Charlene and looking down shyly, not saying a word. But when she looked up, she finally let go completely for the first time since seeing the older Guardian. She couldn’t make her walls stand up anymore, couldn’t put up a fight. She broke down, and she just started to cry.

“I don’t know what happened.” she said. “ I don’t know why he would…”

“None of us do,” Charlene assured her, smiling gently. She wanted again to reach out and give Eve a comforting touch or embrace, but she knew she still couldn’t.  

“Judson is beside himself,” Charlene sighed. “And now that Flynn’s mother knows the real story she…”

“Flynn’s mother?!” Eve exclaimed. “She’s here? Where is she? Can I talk to her?”

Eve looked past Charlene where she could see a sort of vague field of bright light. Suddenly she got this feeling that that was where she needed to be. There were people she needed to see there, things she needed to do, and if she could meet Flynn’s mother…

Charlene looked worried and held out a hand to Eve to stop. She sighed as she thought about the other danger of bringing mortals to the mirror realm, besides the initial transition:  the draw to lost loved ones was too strong. And, if not controlled, it could cause a mortal to cross over to the afterlife and be gone forever.

“Eve,” Charlene said firmly. “This is not heaven or whatever you prefer to call it; this is the mirror realm. It’s like…an in-between. Immortals, when they die, can’t pass on as quickly as the rest of us. There’s a lot of life force to pass, so, until it’s finished, we stay here, and pass back and forth as we please. And then it gets less and less as the years go by and eventually we stay moved on. Judson would be here to see you too, but the journey’s getting harder for him.

“My point is, I could go see Judson and Mrs. Carsen if I wanted to Eve, but _you_ : you’re mortal. You only get one pass. You pass through and it’s final: you’re gone. I’m taking a risk even having you here. Most mortals would be dead just to try, but you’re lucky because you’re a Guardian, and you’ve already committed to tether.”

With the mention of tethering, Eve’s face fell again. No matter what the distraction it always came back to this, to something that reminded her of Flynn. And now she was faced with having him just within reach, and not being able to do a single thing about it. She felt her face get hot as she started to cry all over again.

“I failed him Charlene,” she sputtered. “I failed him as his Guardian, as his…”

“Now hold on just a minute,” Charlene snapped, more emphatic than she’d been for the entire meeting. “How on earth can you think that?”

“I’m his Guardian!” Eve exclaimed, her voice still blubbery in spots. “I’m supposed to protect him, protect his soul. Like Jenkins said, pulling him out of the river and….I should’ve known this was happening I should’ve….and now look at him.”

“You did _not_ fail him.”

“He left the Library Charlene. There can’t be anything worse than that. Isn’t that what happened to the last guy or….”

“No, no no.” Charlene insisted, trying not to grow angry at the mention of Wilde. “Listen to me. First of all, the situation which you were referring to was entirely different. Second, I think you need to take a closer look at your Librarian Colonel Baird.”

“Charlene I can’t….”

“Look.”

Eve turned slowly and hesitantly towards Flynn. When she did, she saw the same image she saw before. He wasn’t doing anything but staring at whatever book he was reading.

“There’s nothing I didn’t see before,” she said to Charlene, crossing her arms.

“Really?” Charlene insisted. “What’s that I see around his neck?”

Eve looked back at Charlene confused, and the elder Guardian nudged her forward. Carefully, Eve walked closer to Flynn, tiptoeing. Even though she knew he couldn’t hear her, somehow she was still scared of startling him. Her breathing growing hasty, she sat down on the couch, and let her eyes float down to his neckline, absent now of his usual ascot and vest, now instead bare above a scoop-neck T-shirt.

She inhaled sharply as she saw what Charlene wanted her to see.

“He’s wearing my necklace.” she muttered.

Her hand instinctively flew to the place on her neck where her favorite necklace normally hung, that she was used to playing with when she was upset. She hadn’t been able to find it since Flynn left and now, there it was, clear as day.

“He must’ve….” she stuttered, turning back to Charlene but growing unable to keep her eyes off of Flynn. “I left it on my desk when I went to go shower.”

“And look on the wall Guardian.” Charlene said.

Eve looked up now, to the wall behind them. Her breathing continued to shake as her eyes fell upon pictures: pictures of her, pictures of the whole team together, and, in the center of it all, a picture of the two of them, the one she’d always told him was her favorite.

Eve looked at Charlene dumbfounded, but she was met with a gentle and knowing smile. She walked over to join Eve, who stood up again to meet her eyes.

“You did not _fail_ him Guardian,” Charlene repeated. “Look around you. Look at what he’s keeping with him. No soul that does that could be possibly be lost. You already saved him, a long time ago, and that necklace, those pictures….that proves that you’re still saving him, even when you’re not together.”

“He wants to come home.” Eve cried, looking back at the wall of pictures again.

“And that’s because of what you already did for him, and it’s because of that that I’m so sure he will.”

“Flynn,” Eve sputtered, looking back at him again.

“You think all Guardians don’t go through this?” she said, though Eve’s eyes were not on her.  “You think I don’t know what you’re feeling? What do you think I went through with Judson for two millennia?! There’s a reason he and Flynn got along so well you know.”

This earned a chuckle, and finally a smile, from Eve.

“Speaking of which,” Charlene continued. “I think it’s time I return to my own Librarian.”

Charlene stepped closer to her Guardian charge, who now stood plainly still and stared at her with tears streaming down her cheeks.

“There’s a reason the Library chose you Eve Baird,” she said firmly. “And now it’s time for you to keep reminding it why.”

“What?!” Eve stuttered, seeming to immediately understand what Charlene was saying. “No! Flynn!”

She turned quickly back to her Librarian and tried to put her hand on his shoulder. He didn’t feel solid when she did, but he suddenly jerked up to sit straight, as if distracted by a thought, and he grabbed the necklace that Eve had noticed.

“Eve,” Charlene said, stepping as close to her as possible.

Eve couldn’t escape now, turning back and forth between Charlene and Flynn, wanting to stay here with him, wanting to run away from what she knew was about to happen.

“Go home and take care of your other Librarians,” Charlene said. “And make sure that everything’s all up and running for when your first Librarian comes home.”

Eve wanted to say something, but could only seem to stare on in shock. She didn’t have time to process anything and then Charlene was reaching up, and for the first time since she appeared, they touched as Charlene wiped a tear from Eve’s face.

There was a pop, and Eve gasped, and then she was back in The Library, sitting at the conference table just as she had been before. She looked around and tried to reorient herself, memories of everything that had happened blurred together and confused. She looked back to the mirror and it was empty, showing no signs of anything ever having happened.

 _Did she dream it?_ she wondered.

She reached up and touched her cheek and found it wet with a lingering tear. She stayed still with the shock of recognition for a moment, and then her hand came down shaking until it was in front of her, and she could see her tethering ring on her finger. She reached into her pocket and sure enough there was Flynn’s, just where she’d left it.

Somehow it still didn’t feel like it had all happened, and yet clearly it did. She went into the mirror and she spoke to Charlene, and Flynn….a memory struck her then and her hand flew to her chest, where she found her neck bare once again. She thought for a moment, and looked at Flynn’s ring which she now held in her hands.

Slowly leaving the conference table, she walked over to her desk and pulled out another one of her necklaces from the desk drawer. She slipped off the pendant-that really didn’t have much meaning to her-and slipped Flynn’s ring across the chain. She closed the clasp around her neck and let the whole thing fall before letting her hand fall and grip it tight.

She was mad yes, and hurt, and worried, and everything she'd been before. But after what she'd seen today she knew she had to have faith in him. Faith in _them_. He didn't stop believing in her, not for a minute, even when other obstacles took him away. And now it was time for her to do the same.

**Author's Note:**

> Gaaaaaaaaah I need Flynn to come home. Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for all your love and support as always. Stay magical and see you soon!


End file.
